Acharius Medallists

Nina Siergeovna Golubkova

Nina Sergeevna Golubkova, DSc, Professor, Honoured Scientist of Russian Federation, Vice-President of Russian Botanical Society, started her lichenological activity in 1955 taken on post-graduate at the Komarov Botanical Institute in Leningrad. At that time Prof. Vsevolod Savicz was the Head of the Department of Non-vascular Plants. He became her first teacher and the scientific supervisor of her Ph.D. thesis 'Lichens of Moscow Region'. Having defended in 1962 Nina Golubkova continued to study lichens of the European part of Russia, resulting in her first monograph 'Handbook of Lichens of European Russia' (Golubkova 1966).

By the beginning of the 1960s, while the huge material of Antarctic lichens gathered during the first Soviet Antarctic expeditions accumulated at the Komarov Botanical Institute, Prof. Savicz suggested that Nina Golubkova should investigate these. Nina Golubkova published eleven papers on lichens of this region. At the same time she studied lichens of another 'white spot' – cold high mountain deserts of the Pamir.

Important contributions to lichenology were her famous studies on the lichens of Mongolia. From 1970 to 1974, she traveled all around the Mongolian steppes, deserts and mountains collecting thousands of lichen specimens. The results of this work were published in the number of papers and two books (Golubkova 1981, 1983). In 1984 Nina Golubkova defended the DSc thesis 'Genesis of Lichen Flora of Mongolia'. A continuation of her taxonomic studies of arid lichens was the monograph on Acarosporaceae in the USSR (Golubkova 1988).

Furthermore, Nina Golubkova made an important contribution to the theory of lichenology. Evolving of the ideas of Alexander Elenkin about the nature of lichens symbiosis and evolution of lichen thallus structures she has elaborated a system of biomorphological forms of lichens.

Nina Golubkova always combines her scientific work with pedagogical activity. More than twenty Ph.D. theses were defended under her supervision. Now her disciples work all over the states of former Soviet Union. Presently Nina Golubkova is preparing a Chapter 'Bacidiaceae' for the next volume of 'Handbook of Lichens of Russia'. She is an Editor-in-Chief of this issue as well as the year-book 'Novitates Systematicae Plantarum non Vascularium'. Besides Nina Golubkova is a formal Head of the Laboratory of Lichenology and Bryology of the Komarov Botanical Institute and an informal leader of all Russian lichenologists.